Ford to test autonomous vehicles at Mcity

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Ford Motor Co. will begin testing its autonomous vehicles at Mcity, a simulated facility at the University of Michigan, to speed up research of advanced sensing technologies.

Ford, which has been testing autonomous vehicles for more than 10 years, will be the first automaker to test them at the 32-acre facility that opened in July, it said in a statement.

Ford will use Mcity to expand testing of its Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research vehicle.

The Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research vehicle combines driver-assist technologies, such as front-facing cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors, with four LiDAR sensors to produce a real-time 3D map of the vehicle’s surrounding environment.

"The goal of Mcity is that we get a scaling factor," said Ryan Eustice, associate professor at the University of Michigan. "Every mile driven there can represent 10, 100 or 1,000 miles of on-road driving in terms of our ability to pack in the occurrences of difficult events."